Self-control, Heather? This is a kid who used to sneak away from junior high to purchase forbidden Porky Puffs at the corner grocery
. Good thing I didn't have $ most of the time.
I was raised a 7th day Adventist, altho' that was an awfully long time ago. Teenagers show their independence in more ways than just their eating habits
. Still, it strongly influenced my diet as a child and since. However, ours was a farm family and we ate a lot of meat. That has become fairly uncommon as American Adventists have become more urbanized and many, many are vegetarians.
My mother was a person who frequented the health food stores but she and her mother had worked at a upscale restaurant and had a taste for the foods you might find there. Dad was a farm kid but times were really tough for both these families. Mom says they didn't always have much food and Dad talks about harvesting alfalfa for "greens" in the spring and being happy with potatoes and gravy for dinner. That would be "milk gravy" if you are curious.
We probably ate a lot like Dad's family - meat and potatoes. Right - no pork. My Gosh, we had a lot of milk! That was wonderful for a kid, I suppose. Dad is obviously lactose intolerant and I seem to be now, also. Still, Dad refuses to even consider soy milk even tho' breakfast
mush is an important part of his daily diet. A matter of frugality . . . which makes no sense to me since if you can't digest it and it causes problems . . .
'Bird, I wonder how your friend discovered chicken livers on spaghetti noodles
. I think it was Burt Wolf who wrote about how important Italian immigrants were to the American diet and the acceptance of vegetables. Vegetables were viewed as poor food and all the emphasis was placed on meat, bread & potatoes before Italian people arrived here beginning about 1890. I guess my family never got the message. Altho', I can still remember when the first pizza place came to town and when spaghetti was something new & different in the kitchen. Both sides of my family were on the frontier. After scrambling up and down the Pacific coast, civilization darn near caught up to us
.
Steve
) but its hard for kids to know, when they see adults eating that junk whenever they want, that they shouldnt have it for every meal. Again, teaching that is just a matter of parenting, as you all have discussed, at least just teach your children good life skills like patience and self control, and then they have the tools to help them make their own decisions!!
